Last night was a very lucky night for the 30 fans in attendance at Midtown Comics’ special invite only Q&A with Brian Michael Bendis. Not only were these 30 winners chosen at random from over 300 entries, but they walked away with exclusive signed variants, pre-orders of the highly anticipated The United States of Murder Inc., and great stories from an intimate evening with Bendis (we’ll get to those stories in a minute).

The United States of Murder Inc. is a new series from Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming that dives back into the crime fiction genre that fans of Powers, Torso, and Goldfish have come to love. Bendis got the idea when Oeming jokingly asked, “What do you think would have happened if the mob took over the country?” What Oeming didn’t expect was for Bendis to come back with a pitch and a slew of wild ideas that would eventually turn into a new series from Icon Comics. The first issue will be double sized and available for a standard price from all retailers. Oh, and the cover art will be illustrated by Bendis himself. Awesome, right?

While Bendis spent all of five minutes discussing this new series, he happily devoted most of his time to answer any and all questions that his eager fans had for him. These ranged from his work in the Ultimate Marvel universe, to his troubles with Hollywood regarding Torso and Powers, to even offering up some writing and drawing advice for newcomers in the industry. In one great example Bendis mentioned, “There are two types of artists in this world. There are those who can’t draw feet, and instead hide them with capes or smoke. And then there are those who can’t draw feet, and instead practice drawing them over and over again until they get it right.” Obviously, Bendis falls into that second category.

Regarding his frustrations with the development of the Powers TV series, Bendis happily announced that Sony has picked up the show, and it is now the first to stream exclusively on the Playstation Network. However, luck has run out for fans awaiting a Torso film from David Fincher. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but Bendis mentioned that the film has gone through a number of different revisions, and the future remains unknown.

It was also fun to hear Bendis speak about his “second family”, Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue Deconnick. He told a great story about when Fraction first pitched his now critically acclaimed series, Sex Criminals. “So after they have sex, they decide to go rob banks”, Fraction casually mentioned to Bendis in his backyard. Bendis thought this idea was a bit “unique”, but had no doubts about Fraction’s skills, even within this new sex-crime genre.

From there, Bendis answered a few more questions about Alias, Son of Satan, and Scarlet. He ended with discussing how much fun it was to write the All New X-Men, and shared with us his excitement of issue #25, which hits shelves today.

Brian Michael Bendis may be one of the busiest writers and illustrators in the industry today, and I honestly have no clue how he finds the time to create so many great comics while raising a family of four. All I know is that this was a great evening with one of the most talented writers of our time. Keep your eyes open for our next Q&A event!